Author(s)

Delphine Mbong Wam Iwoi¹, Peter Fon Nde^1,2, Euphrasia Yuh³, Emmanuel Tebit Kwenti^2,4*, Edouard Katayi Tshimwanga⁵, Denis Tange Achiri⁶, Kenne Emmanuel Djunda⁷

¹Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.
²Department of Public Health and Hygiene, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.
³Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.
⁴Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.
⁵AIDS Control Program, Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services Complex, Mutengene, Cameroon.
⁶Institute of Applied and Natural Science, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey.
⁷Department of Anaesthesia, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria.

Due to the chronic shortage of health personnel, nurses and midwives now play a fundamental role in the care and treatment of people living with HIV/ AIDS (PLHIV) in Cameroon. This study was therefore designed to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice with regard to care of PLHIV among nursing and midwifery students in Fako division of Cameroon. A survey was performed between May and July 2015, among 227 nursing and midwifery students (in their second to final year of study), selected from 8 government accredited training institutions in Fako division of Cameroon. An anonymous self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The Pearson’s chi-square test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses adjusting for possible confounders were all performed as part of the statistical analyses. The cutoff of statistical significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. Nursing and midwifery students had a moderate level of HIV/AIDS knowledge (average score of 7.02 on a scale of 11). Attitude towards PLHIV was generally positive (68.7%) but there were some misconceptions and prejudice about PLHIV, with considerable stigmatization (31.3%), unwillingness to share a room with someone infected with HIV (27.7%), and unwillingness to work on PLHIV (23.8%). Good HIV/AIDS knowledge was observed to be the sole independent predictor (p = 0.004) of positive attitude towards PLHIV. Fur-thermore the confidence of the respondents regarding care of PLHIV was generally moderate. Our results suggest the need for the development of a more appropriate education program in nursing and midwifery institutions in Fako division to reduce the discrepancies between the general knowledge, attitude and practice regarding care of PLHIV.

Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, People Living with HIV/AIDS, Nursing, Midwifery, Students, Fako Division, Cameroon

Iwoi, D. , Nde, P. , Yuh, E. , Kwenti, E. , Tshimwanga, E. , Achiri, D. and Djunda, K. (2017) Assessment of the Level of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice with Regard to Care of People Living with HIV/AIDS among Nursing and Midwifery Students in Fako, Cameroon. World Journal of AIDS, 7, 1-15. doi: 10.4236/wja.2017.71001.